Captain Bligh US Navy

[dieseltaylor]

I am very surprised that the captain was not chucked out of the service. Perhaps having two admirals in the family helps.

http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1969602,00.html

According to the Navy inspector general's report that triggered her removal — and the accounts of officers who served with her — Captain Holly Graf was the closest thing the U.S. Navy had to a female Captain Bligh. A Navy admiral stripped Graf of her command of the Japan-based guided missile cruiser U.S.S. Cowpens in January. The just-released IG report concludes that Graf "repeatedly verbally abused her crew and committed assault" and accuses her of using her position as commander of the Cowpens "for personal gain." But old Navy hands tell TIME that those charges, substantiated in the IG report, came about because of the poisonous atmosphere she created aboard her ship.

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1969602,00.html#ixzz0hWaZrb0t

[Sergei]

Seriously, Holly Graf? Does she also have a brother named Otto?

[Kanonier Reichmann]

Seriously, Holly Graf? Does she also have a brother named Otto?

Nor her sister- Polly... who may well have either helped or hindered her in the investigation.

Regards

KR

[Affentitten]

I guess having a Royal Navy tradition in our family, I don't object to captains swearing at subordinates. I mean, the article states that she even "threw a wadded up piece of paper" at a senior noncom. Jesus. Toughen up! What ever happened to The Cat?

I think what's more serious about this officer though is her staunch inability to develop her juniors. That when they went to her for advice, she abused them and that she apparently ruined so many careers. It's always the mark of someone who is insecure in their own abilities. Sounds like she was promoted as some sort of affirmative action poster girl and they backed the wrong horse.

[-E]

Nor her sister- Polly... who may well have either helped or hindered her in the investigation.

Regards

KR

Weren't they the offspring of Telly?

[Elmar Bijlsma]

I guess having a Royal Navy tradition in our family, I don't object to captains swearing at subordinates. I mean, the article states that she even "threw a wadded up piece of paper" at a senior noncom. Jesus. Toughen up! What ever happened to The Cat?

I think what's more serious about this officer though is her staunch inability to develop her juniors. That when they went to her for advice, she abused them and that she apparently ruined so many careers. It's always the mark of someone who is insecure in their own abilities. Sounds like she was promoted as some sort of affirmative action poster girl and they backed the wrong horse.

Yup. That seems to be about it.

Slight disagreement on the swearing though. There is swearing and there is swearing. I've got no problem with a sergeant's tirade caused by some new recruits continuous barrage of **** ups in the face of clear instruction, especially when provided with corrective advice somewhere along the tirade. This nutbag went well beyond that and seems to have been unable to communicate in any other way other then abuse.

That her crew and officers past and present seem to have lined up around the block to put the boot in seems a clear indictment that this woman was deeply unsuitable.

[dieseltaylor]

Apparently the story was meant to be hushed up but has leaked to the present furore and the Capt. is being "let go". However the Navy has a history of being "careful" with the truth:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kara_Hultgreen

however being dishonest with the truth is a basically a bad idea

These are blogs on the case , the later being bigger and also I end with a quote about a female officer who got kicked out. And that one looks interesting.

http://www.susankatzkeating.com/2010/01/captain-holly-graf-plows-down-whale.html

http://navycaptain-therealnavy.blogspot.com/2010/01/number-two-in-our-countdown-is-captain.html

sample

Anonymous said... As a former Churchill Sailor I think alot of people can find closure in this. Sure one can say we should respect her 25+ years of service. But how about those countless officers and enlisted that dropped their letter the first chance they got because they did not want to risk serving under another CO like this. She fired one XO, (which was shot but our DESRON because he reported what he was seeing onboard. He was told to support her!!) She sent off the ship three department heads because they were unfit in her eyes. Which for the record were successful in the tours after she left. She refused to qualify a JO because he missed a few days of an underway inorder to get married. She removed email access from an Officer who's wife had jut given birth to their first child on deployment as a punishment for something he did. We had a 6th fleet chaplain embarked which every reported these issues that fell on deaf ears. I think the best was upon the return from the 2003 surge deployment we had everthing all planned out for the enlisted sailors to see their family. We pulled onto the pier and it was an hour after the brow went on and everything was complete until any sailor got to meet their family. Sure the CO was on the flight deck with her dogs, family, and family the selected few favorites has families waited in disbelief on the pier and sailors waited topside. I love of the article stated that she hold a successful tour on Churchill. I think it was alot like CAPT Sobel in Band of Brothers. The crew came together against her to succeed. The truest measure of her success on the ship was not the Bronze star awarded as her end of tour award, but the cheers from the crew standing at attention during the change of command ceromony the second CDR Leavitt stated "I relieve you." This event has renewed my faith in my upper chain of command

January 15, 2010 9:38 AM

Cowpens Sailor said... I am a sailor on the Cowpens, and have been for 2+ years (before Capt. Graf came aboard). As an E-6 (and an engineer to boot), let me tell you – the few times that I personally dealt with her were extremely unpleasant. She is extremely brash, demeaning, condescending, crude, crass, and very profane. Let me give one example that I personally witnessed (and think about the JO’s & DH’s that are around her all the time, and what they must have gone through!): The ship was at GQ, for a TSSE (mass-conflag) drill. I am a member of a training team, and I was standing by to impose a casualty near her stateroom (just below the pilothouse). Material condition zebra was properly set and the hatches were dogged down. As I was standing by, she came up the ladder, opened the hatch, and proceeded to scream and belittle me for allowing zebra to be set (during a drill) when she had to refill her coffee cup in her stateroom. One of the ATG inspectors (an officer) was nearby and attempted to calm her down and explain that if the hatch wasn’t set, the zebra checks would be deemed ‘not effective.’ She then yelled up the ladder to the pilothouse to the JOOD, getting no response, she then threw her coffee mug (not a paper cup, mind you, a ceramic mug) at the officer, and ordered him to DC central to log the hatch near her stateroom open. Then, in front of several junior enlisted, cursed a storm and began throwing other things from inside her stateroom and into the passageway.

In response to the questions brought up above about how long the upper chain of command knew about this; it was more than 7 months, as I personally have knowledge of an email that went to the Navy Inspector General 7 months ago.

Anyway, there are many rumors which also make me wonder why Article 128 was not included in the charges. But I’ll leave this post to just the facts that I know for sure

One quick story to illustrate my point: While standing watch as an Officer of the Deck, she would often call up to the bridge after the ship took a roll in heavy seas and ask, "why are you using so much rudder?" This was despite the fact we had been rudder amidships for the past 20 minutes. When I told her the rough seas were making the ship rock (Even as a CAPT with over 20 years in the Navy, she couldn't grasp the basic concept that a ship rolls in the middle of the ocean...I know, what a crazy idea.,) she would scream at me and demand that I change out the helmsmen.

Apparently not everyone gets the same protection:

It appalls me after reading the comments about Holly Graf, who no longer deserves to wear the rank or hold title of Captain. With my 30 plus years of military service, I've seen this sorta thing far too many times, when the Navy turns the blind eye to a senior officers conduct (while in uniform) just so they can defend their percentages or diversity quotas. By the sound of it, Holly Graf should have gotten the boot a long time ago...

Unfortunately, that was the case for another black female officer, unjustly courts martialed, fined, convicted, jailed then separated from the Navy for so-called "Adultery" after she blew the whistle on Top Navy Brass for a cover-up on contract fraud.

As quiet as it was kept, the Navy booted LCDR Syneeda Penland out of the Navy several months before she was eligibile to retire, without a pension. I guess you could say; the Navy had already met its diversity quota for black female officers. So Penland had to go... There was no cushy desk job for this “Whistle Blower” at the Pentagon.

I'm sure the Navy can find additional use for “Bully” Holly Graf.

January 18, 2010 3:03 AM

Court Martial Witness said... For those interested, LCDR Penland's CM transcript is here (all 1022 pages)

http://www.10news.com/download/2009/0722/20136712.pdf

[dieseltaylor]

http://www.capmag.com/article.asp?ID=3264

Gender-Norming Update

by Walter Williams (April 4, 1997)

In October 1994, Lt. Kara Hultgreen was killed during an attempted landing of her F-14 on the aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln. Femfeared (fear of feminists) Navy officials first re ported that engine failure caused the death of the Navy's first female F-14 pilot. That was a deliberate lie and coverup as later revealed in a leaked Mishap Investigation Report and the Navy's Judge Advocate General's report. After three requests, under the Freedom of Information Act, the Center for Military Readiness recently obtained a 1995 report written by Admiral Lyle G. Bien. The report confirms special treatment for female F-14 pilots. It also confirms that Lt. Hultgren was retained in the F-14 training program and graduated to the fleet despite low scores and four major errors (Downs), two of which were similar to those made the day she died. Just one or two major Downs have been enough to send men packing.

Then there's Lt. Carey Lohrenz, who was washed out of the F-14 program, who's brought suit against Elaine Donnelly, Director of the Center for Military Readiness and several newspapers. Lt. Lohrenz claims public release of her training records violated her privacy. Claiming sex discrimination, she's demanding reinstatement. Her training records are reported as being "the lowest night grades in the history of the FRS [Pacific F-14 Fleet Replacement Squadron] . . . no pilot in the history of the FRS was allowed to attempt requalification with grades as low as hers."

Aircraft carrier maneuvers are error unforgiving. Pilot incompetency not only jeopardizes the life of the pilot but crew members and the ship's mission as well. Case in point: during refueling, Lt. Lohrenz failed to secure the F-14's right engine so as not to suck approaching crew members into a turning engine. Since there is so much noise on deck, crew members can't tell whether an engine is off; it's the pilot's responsibility. Because of the alertness of the flight instructor a catastrophe was averted. Lt. Lohrenz was given the minor demerit, Signal of Difficulty (SOD), instead of a more serious Down. Other concessions included no Downs for serious violations such as not engaging automatic maneuvering devices in air combat maneuvering engagements. Officers who insist that females be held accountable to the same high standards as males are seen by higher brass as obstructionist and risk their careers.

Double standards to accommodate women have compromised military effectiveness. Women are three to four times as non-deployable as men as we learned during Desert Storm. Despite relentless sex education and condom distribution, pregnancy rates average 8 to 10 percent, and are much higher in some enlisted units. Fighting ships compromise their missions to insure the safety of pregnant females. Training standards have been lowered to accommodate lower strength and stamina of women.

The General Office of Accounting (GAO) reports that annual surveys done at service academies since 1992 show that complaints about double standards have been identified as the first or second most common form of verbal sexual harassment. Male resentment against double standards is sometimes expressed in inappropriate ways that have been featured in recent news stories of sexual, harassment, intimidation and rape at military posts.

There are physical differences between the sexes that affect combat readiness, but those differences do not deny a role for women in the nation's defense. Women were indispensable and served honorably in WWII. The femfeared military leadership does not have the guts to recognize sex differences and are willing to risk national security to appease radical feminists.

[Sergei]

Damn those radical feminists for wanting equal treatment of women!

[mike_the_wino]

I disagree, Segei, I would say damn those feminists for not outing this woman years ago. This woman was a nightmare to men, women, and the US Navy. I do like the Sobel reference by the one gal who served under this tyrant.

[Bigduke6]

I dunno. Seems like an awful lot people served under this woman's command, and were glad to gripe to one another, but never tried to change the system. If she was in for a quarter century then think of all the officers that didn't resign their commissions (and end a career) and instead just suffered/excused her. Plenty of guilt to go around, I think.

[Sergei]

I disagree, Segei, I would say damn those feminists for not outing this woman years ago. This woman was a nightmare to men, women, and the US Navy. I do like the Sobel reference by the one gal who served under this tyrant.

Of course bad leaders shouldn't be allowed to lead, but making it a gender issue like in your quoted article is ridiculous. Femfeared? For ****s sake! :mad: People who spout on and on about radical feminists or secret gay agendas etc. are extremely prejudiced and only want to use these as excuses for persecution. They're the same people who also would have supported racial separation in the armed forces back when that was fashionable. When a white heterosexual male índividual screws up big time, does anyone want to deny service by white heterosexual males? If not, why should women be treated any differently?

[dieseltaylor]

BD and Sergei perhaps you have not read the 200+ comments in the blogs. Plenty of people kicked up but there was an agenda higher up. there are also complimentary comments on other women officers and reports of two male officers ejected from the Navy this year.

Installing bad commanders into a system does no one any favours particularly if commonsense is overruled in favour of political agendas. There are plenty of good coloured and female candidates - putting through some ****ty ones might be argued is sabotage of the system and of the class being favoured. In which case playing it straight is best for all.

[Bigduke6]

DT,

I didn't read all the comments but I did read some. What I was talking about was officers directly under this woman's command, who put principle and the well-being of the sailors, over their personal careers, and resigned their commissions and then went public, and made as big a stink as possible, pushed the problem outside Navy channels, and generally did everything possible to get this woman out of command, as soon as possible.

As far as I can tell, nothing like that ever happened. The trend seems to have been, either "suck it up and survive until the next assignment" or "complain within Navy channels, and when nothing happens just accept that." Which is not to say the officers under her command were complacent, but it is to say that none of them - as far as I can tell anyway - made a maximum effort to end, as soon as possible, this woman's s woman's command of a warship, for the sake of the sailors and the well-being of the Navy.

I would call resigning one's commission, going public, and writing one's Congressman, making a maximum effort. I do not call griping in e-mails, or compaining to the IG and hoping, a maximum effort. That is perhaps sufficient for an enlisted soldier, but an officer - at least according to what the officers say - is held to a higher standard.

Same deal as von Paulus and Stalingrad, really. This woman's immediate subordinates, just like von Paulus, were commanded by a dictator whose attitude and decisions were prejudicial to the well-being of the soldiers those officers commanded, and the military organization those officers were responsible for running.

Given how bad things can get when a tyrant obtains military command, it is fair to ask, why is it that the officers supposedly sworn to protect the interests of the soldiers, and the integrity of the military organization, didn't resign their commissions when a tyrant was doing massive damage to the soldiers' (and the military organization's) well-being?

I point this out in part because these days there is a great deal of very pious "we do everything for the troops, our soldiers are our number one priority, etc." in the modern military. Yet when faced with a difficult moral choice - in this case resign one's commission or put up with a tyrant commander - it seems that almost all officers in the modern military take the easier route, at the expense of the well-being of the troops.

Still, the officers that accepted this woman and went on with their careers, appear mostly to have kept their careers. Can't really fault them on a personal level.

[Tero]

Weren't they the offspring of Telly?

Nah. Definitely they were the offspring of Auto

[Tero]

Damn those radical feminists for wanting equal treatment of women!

Equal treatment is not the same as positive discrimination.

[Sergei]

Equal treatment is not the same as positive discrimination.

And repeatedly talking of positive discrimination doesn't make it any more real.

[dieseltaylor]

Sergei - positive discrimination does/did exist so I am not sure what tack you are on.

BD6 - Given that not everybody who served under her as written to the blogs we do not know how many left the service after complaining of her behaviour. Certainly some people have mentioned she was rubbish and they told her superiors and were stonewalled.

There is also a black cloud over the way the Navy deals with high profile cases where they bend over backwards to keep people sweet - see the following

http://www.militarycorruption.com/paulas.htm

[Tero]

And repeatedly talking of positive discrimination doesn't make it any more real.

What kind of proof do you accept ?

[mike_the_wino]

.......Femfeared? For ****s sake! :mad: People who spout on and on about radical feminists or secret gay agendas etc. are extremely prejudiced and only want to use these as excuses for persecution. They're the same people who also would have supported racial separation in the armed forces back when that was fashionable. When a white heterosexual male índividual screws up big time, does anyone want to deny service by white heterosexual males? If not, why should women be treated any differently?

Thanks for the clarification. I think we are pretty much saying the same thing....but you said it better.....so now I hate you.

I absolutely agree with you that this is one woman can in no way be held as example of women in command. Sounds like she would be a nightmare of a boss if she was running a coffee shop or a Fortune 500. Just a fecking loon. Plain and simple.

[Michael Emrys]

BD6,

Careerism in the military has been a problem as long as organized permanent military establishments have existed. In the US militaries the problem seemed to get worse after WW II and peaked out during the Viet Nam war. After that war it seemed to get a bit better during the rebuilding period of the professional forces, but now it is looking like it never left and has been on a resurgence since ODS. Seems like every time we win a war it gets worse and it takes a humiliating defeat to put some starch back into the ranks of the officer corps.

Michael

[Michael Emrys]

I absolutely agree with you that this is one woman can in no way be held as example of women in command. Sounds like she would be a nightmare of a boss if she was running a coffee shop or a Fortune 500. Just a fecking loon. Plain and simple.

Maybe someone should have just tipped her over the side some dark night...

"Honest, sir, we didn't notice that the captain was gone until the next morning."

Michael

[Affentitten]

Yes, I'm thinking of the episode of Hornblower where someone gives the crazed Captain a bit of a nudge towards an open hatch one stormy night.

[souldierz]

She's the perfect example of the Queen of hearts who's off her head in the movie 'Alice in Wonderland'.

It pleases everyone to see those people fall from high places as they do.No Soldier or Sailor should have to endure such madness from a superior.It would be such a high honor to be in her position in command of a military ship and I would never be able to bring myself to do what she did, such dishonor towards your crew is blood boiling and intolerable.Me personally if people cheered for my dismissal the way they did for her's, I would be crushed and broken, because that is pure failure.

Out of all her insults, the best one was laid on her "I relieve you".